USA - Mississippi. A new trial has been ordered for Michelle Byrom

A new trial has been ordered for Michelle Byrom, according to a state Supreme Court opinion issued today. Byrom's capital murder conviction was reversed, and the case has been remanded to the circuit court for a new trial, the opinion said. Byrom has been on death row since her 2000 conviction for capital murder. The 57-year-old woman was convicted of being the mastermind of a murder-for-hire plot to kill her allegedly abusive husband, a killing her son had admitted to committing in several jailhouse letters and, according to court documents, in an interview with a court-appointed psychologist. He recanted when he was put on the stand, according to court records." The Supreme Court opinion noted that the decision "is extraordinary and extremely rare in the context of a petition for leave to pursue post-conviction relief."